Plasmonic router

A plasmonic router can include a first surface plasmon guide and a second surface plasmon guide. A surface plasmon can be generated in either of the plasmon guides. Each plasmon guide has an energy barrier, which can be selectively decreased to allow selective propagation of the generated surface plasmon through the plasmon guide. The generated surface plasmon has an evanescent wave that extends outwardly from the plasmon guide by a spatial extent. To allow for surface plasmon propagation between plasmon guides, the plasmon guides can be spaced apart by a predetermined gap that is less than the spatial extent of the surface plasmon. When that occurs, the surface plasmon will “jump” the predetermined gap and propagate from one plasmon guide to the other plasmon guide.